1 post tagged “cold calling”

Today during my summer school lesson I used the cold calling technique.  I thought it would be a great idea to help the kids be quiet and wait to be called on.  I didn't really liked the way that it turned out though.  It was tough to manage and keep up with.
During the first half of the lesson, I kept pretty consistent with the method.  But having only four kids in my class really hindered the strategy from working.  Sometimes I would come up with the same kid's name three times in a row, which didn't give the other students a chance to work themselves in.  I think this aspect would be better utilized in a larger class.
I also thought that it stunted the lesson from advancing in a timely manner.  I every time I asked a question I would have to go to choose another name.  It got kind of annoying to me and it seemed to bore the kids a little bit too.  I ask so many questions that I would have to pull a name every 10 seconds.  Sometimes I would drop them slips of paper too.  It doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but it gets pretty old, pretty quickly.
It also seemed to disappoint the studious kids who wanted to raise their hands and answer the questions.  Somehow it seemed like their name just got pulled less.
On a good note there were less kids trying to blurt out answers when they saw me reach for the names.  Because of this reason alone, I might actually try this again once I get a larger class just to see how it works out.  I probably wouldn't try it again with such a small group.